Category: Cross

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Discernment Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Scripture

The challenge of discipleship.

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In today’s gospel Jesus makes clear to his disciples that he is heading towards Jerusalem and suffering. His words are stark and challenging. Once again, I find myself sympathising with Peter’s response. He says to him:

“Heaven preserve you, Lord;… This must not happen to you.”

Peter rushes to make things better, to help Jesus avoid the suffering. We often feel like that when we encounter a loved one in pain. Our first instinct is to do whatever we can to remove the pain, to “make everything better”. We do this even when we know from experience it is not necessarily the best or most helpful way.

Jesus points out that God’s way is different. God calls us not to avoid the necessary suffering life brings, but to accept it:

“Those who want to be followers of mine must renounce themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their lives will lose them; but those who lose their lives for my sake will find it.”

We can all identify with the suffering this passage talks about. Jesus is not glorifying suffering, or suggesting that we should deliberately seek or hang onto it when it comes. Instead, he suggests that in embracing the suffering that comes our way we move through into the new life that he promises.

The cross is a vital part of our faith, that we all experience in some form. But it is not the point of the gospel, or the end of the Christian story. Sometimes it is more challenging to trust and embrace that hope of new life than it is to accept the suffering of the cross.

Where is Christ inviting you find the hope of new life in the sufferings you face?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Discernment Divine Office Lectio Divina Liturgy Monastic Life Prayer Prophetic voices Rule of St Benedict Saints Scripture

With softened hearts

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In challenging times such as ours it can be helpful to look to our Christian past for role models whose example can give us courage and hope. St Bernard Tolomei, the founder of the Olivetan congregation, whose feast we celebrate today is one of those. He was a 13th century lawyer who, with a few friends, left the city to live as hermits in the hills outside of Siena.

13th century Siena could be a violent and dangerous place. Bernard and his companions may have been glad to leave all that behind as they chose a radical form of contemplative life. But choosing the contemplative life is an act of love, not an escape from the challenges of living with others. This was summed up this morning at Lauds:

“A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

That call of Love leads us into desert places to spend time alone with God. It can also, as Bernard and his companions found out, lead us back into the midst of the bustle of society with all its challenges.

When plague struck Siena in 1349 the Love that called Bernard and his companions into the desert called them back to nurse the victims of the plague. It was there that Bernard fell victim to the plague himself and died.

His life suggests that it’s our time spent with God that enables and sustains our service to others. It is the love we discover in the heart of God that softens our stony hearts and enables us to love our sisters and brothers.

How is God softening your heart towards your neighbour today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Scripture Truth

Finding life

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In today’s gospel Jesus is brutally honest with his disciples about the cost of following him. It will include suffering, loss, challenge and conflict. While this is true of any human life Jesus is making it clear to his disciples that following him will not help them to avoid the suffering of life.

On the contrary, he calls them to accept that suffering willingly, refusing to give into the temptations of avoidance and grumbling which can be so soul destroying. He says to them:

“Those who do not take up their cross and follow in my footsteps are not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it; those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

While his words are a challenge, they also carry hope and promise. He challenges us to look honestly at the tactics we use to numb our pain instead of accepting it as part of life and as something we can, by the grace of God, grow through towards new life.

Knowing human suffering from personal experience he offers us the hope of completely understanding our suffering, however unlikely that might sometimes appear.

He promises us that whatever sufferings we face in life he will be there with us, a compassionate, loving presence in even the darkest of times. While neither the hope nor the promise will remove the sufferings they offer a framework to encourage us to face them.

This message of hope is especially relevant today as we face dark and frightening times amidst a myriad of possible distractions that deny rather than offer hope.

What cross is Christ calling you to take up today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Divine Office Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Saints Scripture

Trusting joyfully in Christ

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Today we’re celebrating the feast of Sts Thomas More and John Fisher. They lived in times that were brutal and frightening, full of betrayal and mistrust. As they faced their martyrdom the words of today’s gospel must have had a particular resonance for them:

“They will hand you over to be tortured and put to death; and you will be hated by all nations on account of my name.”

Neither these disturbing words nor their arrest, imprisonment nor martyrdoms distracted them from trusting in God’s love. They may have felt overwhelmed and frightened by their situation. They certainly wished it could have been different. Yet through it all they were able to keep hold of St Paul’s words to the Romans:

“We are filled with joyful trust in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have already gained our reconciliation.”

The joyful trust Paul describes is easy when life is good. In those times it’s easy to believe that God’s love is poured out into our hearts. It’s not so easy in the reality of the world today, with all its terrors and uncertainties. The harshness of daily life can smother the love, joy and trust that are the heart of the gospel.

It’s when life is at its hardest and most challenging that we need that joyful trust. The harsher our world becomes the more we need the transforming love of God to be poured into our hearts to nurture and sustain us both in our personal struggles and in our interactions with others.

I’m grateful for Paul’s reminder that whatever challenge and uncertainty we face we can trust that God’s love will be with us, sustaining, comforting, healing.

What helps you to keep trusting Christ’s promise in difficult times?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Eastertide Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Resurrection Scripture

The feast of St George

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UNITY

UNITY is central to the message of Eastertide. The resurrection gospel show as the disciples drawing into a new community that supports and protects one another. This means they have to learn to let their barriers down, and risk to others.

Our challenging times incline us to build barriers that we can hide behind. They draw towards protectionism, keeping ourselves safe at the expenses of others. The example of St George, whose face we celebrate today, shows us this is not the call of the risen Christ.

As a Syrian in the Roman army who is patron saint of at least England, Russia, Ethiopia and Georgia St George offers us the opportunity to expand our horizons. He reminds us that our common humanity extends beyond borders and nationalities. He shows us that our hope lies in breaking down barriers, reaching out to the stranger, not in building them higher and excluding people.

He had the courage to stand up to the evil of his day, slaying the “dragons” of his times wherever he could. This offers us courage and hope. In our own times we face plenty of “dragons” unleashed the wars, migration, economic, social and political challenges.

It’s not call without risks. In his second letter to Timothy St Paul writes:

“Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

As we celebrate the feast of St George it seems to me that we are called risk persecution to reach out others, seeking unity and reconciliation wherever we can.

Where is the risen Christ calling you to risk seeking unity today?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Eastertide Gospel Lectio Divina Scripture

Trust in the Lord.

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TRUST

Today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles calls us to TRUST. It tells the story of Stephen, of the earliest Christian converts, and the first Christian martyr.

He is a man of faith filled with the Holy Spirit. Living in an occupied country in dangerous times he would have been aware there would have been risks involved in joining this new group. Yet, he stepped out into the unknown, trusting that the risen Christ and the Holy Spirit would lead him.

Trust is fairly straightforward when life is steady and secure. When we live in stable times, reasonably certain that we can meet our own basic needs trust seems so easy that it’s barely an issue. It becomes much harder when life is uncertain, challenging or even dangerous.

Stephen was able to trust God even when he was challenged and his life was threatened. He carried on trusting in God until the very end of his life when he hands himself over body and soul to the risen Christ. As he dies he says:

“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

Such trust requires an open heart. It’s hard to be openhearted when life is frightening and unstable. In such times all our instincts tell us to close ourselves away, to become less trusting and more suspicious of others.

Stephen’s example reminds us that our call to follow Christ compels us to trust even when life is hard, and trust is a costly choice.

Where is the risen Christ asking you to trust yourself to this Eastertide?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Divine Office Holy Saturday Holy Week Lectio Divina Lent Prayer Prophetic voices Scripture

In The Emptiness

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After the high drama of Good Friday people often talk of Holy Saturday as a “tomb day”, a time to sit with the emptiness that follows death, to allow the events of Good Friday to sink in. I recognise the yearning for that and its wisdom. Yet, it’s not an experience I recognise from monastic life.

In practice, for many of us Holy Saturday is very much a hybrid day, we are aware of its emptiness, the mourning and the uncertainty. We also have to acknowledge that the Easter vigil is fast approaching and that Easter liturgies and treats do not plan themselves. So it is also a day of preparation and anticipation that can be very busy.

As we move through this hybrid day I’m reflecting on these words from the Lamentations of the prophet Jeremiah from this morning’s Office of Readings:

“The favours of the Lord are not all past, nor his kindnesses exhausted; every morning they are renewed: great is his faithfulness. My portion is with the Lord says my soul, and so I will hope in him.”

Even in the midst of his lamentation Jeremiah is able to acknowledge the kindness and faithfulness of God, and to put his hope in that. His words speak to me of the hybrid reality of the day. It seems to me that the emptiness of Holy Saturday calls us to imitate God’s kindness to others as we get on with the many preparations for Easter, and to ourselves as we seek small moments of quiet during the day.

In the emptiness of Holy Saturday where are you aware of the Lord renewing your capacity for kindness?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Divine Office Good Friday Gospel Holy Week Lectio Divina Lent Liturgy Scripture Triduum

Being There.

Image © Ally Barrett (www.reverendally.org) and used by permission

BACKGROUND READING MARK 15:1-41 AND
JOHN 19 17-37 OR JUST JOHN 19 17-37

Salome was one of women who followed Jesus through his passion and death to his resurrection.

Salome’s story is about remembering and forgetting. She remembers her friendship with Mary growing up in Nazareth. She remembers it falling apart after the angel’s visit, and being rediscovered after Mary, Joseph and Jesus returned from Egypt. She remembers how she initially followed Jesus for Mary’s sake, until his words touched her and she begins to follow for herself.

She remembers how, when they hear of Jesus’ arrest, they follow him to his trial and passion. She tells us that, with breaking hearts and dying hopes, they keep vigil at the cross while he dies.

Salome also knows what it feels like to be forgotten. She repeatedly reminds Peter and the other disciples that not all of Jesus’ followers ran away at his arrest. She admits that this might have been habit as much as virtue:

“It’s what I’ve always done. When disaster strikes and I don’t know what to do, I do what I normally do – day in, day out – until the moment comes when I do know what to do again. So, when we heard, when it felt as though the world was collapsing around us, we did what we’d been doing for the past few years. We followed him.”

When we come to the cross on Good Friday we are invited to remember the marginal. We are called to stand with those society rejects, ignores, and pushes aside. We are challenged to become one with them in Christ.

The cross also invites us to bring those parts of ourselves that we reject and ignore. We are called to bring them to the cross, to be welcomed into Jesus’ gaze of “pure love”.

As you stand before the cross this Good Friday where do you need to feel the pure love of Christ your life?
You can hear Salome’s story here:

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Divine Office Gospel Holy Week Lectio Divina Lent Palm Sunday Prophetic voices Psalms Scripture Uncategorized

Women of Holy Week

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From Palm Sunday I’ll be using Paula Gooder’s book “Women of Holy Week” as the basis of my prayer. They tell the stories of ordinary women, some we know from the gospels, though their stories are not elaborated there. Others are not mentioned in the gospel, but it’s possible that someone like them was there in the crowd.

All of their lives were touched and changed, either by encountering Jesus on his journey through Holy Week and Easter or by hearing about him. from others. I will include a link to Paula’s audio reflection at the end of each day’s post.

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Liturgy Prophetic voices Scripture

Living fearlessly

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I’ve been slow to write a reflection today. That’s partly a reaction to the world situation. We woke up this morning to a world even more immersed chaos that was yesterday. It made my plan to spend the second week of Lent focusing on the blessing of gospel living seem at best irrelevant. As I watch conflict and chaos spread across the world it’s almost impossible to discover any blessing in life.

This is the natural response in such frightening and unsettled times. We tend to turn in on ourselves, seeking protection and turning away from hope. In such situations it quickly becomes hard to notice the blessing that God continues to lavish on us even in the hardest of times.

In that state of mind this line in our Lauds Canticle from the prophet Isaiah leapt out at me:

“Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name you are mine. Should you pass through the sea I will be with you; or through rivers, they will not swallow you up.”

This wasn’t written to people living safe and stable lives. It was written to a people in exile who had lost their families, their livelihoods, their culture, even their faith.

This caused me to think again about gospel living. If Isaiah’s words could be a blessing for people in exile they can be a blessing for us in our challenging circumstances today. The blessing of living for today is that however dark and frightening our times, however overwhelming our circumstances we are held in the heart of the loving God who will never leave us.

As we begin the second week of Lent do you need to feel that you are held in God’s heart?